2019 · SE Alder St
A garage kiln
One secondhand wheel, one electric kiln and a first batch of twelve wobbly cups — all sold to neighbours in a weekend.
About the studio
Made slowly, on purpose
Ketaro began in 2019 in a rented garage on SE Alder Street, with one secondhand wheel and a kiln that tripped the fuse twice a week.
Today we are four people in Studio 4, still making everything by hand and still firing forty pieces at a time. We make fewer things, so that each one can be used every day for decades.
2019
First firing, in a rented garage
40
Pieces in every batch, never more
1,280°C
Glaze firing, fourteen hours
What we hold to
Three quiet rules
They decide what we make, how long it takes and what happens when something breaks.
01
Slow by design
Each batch takes six weeks. We would rather sell out than rush a firing or cut a corner on drying.
02
Local clay, honest glaze
Clay from a quarry two hours east, glazes mixed from ash, iron and feldspar. Nothing we can’t explain.
03
Repair, never replace
Chip something you love and we’ll mend it with gold, for free, for as long as the studio exists.
The studio
Four people, one kiln
Every Ketaro piece passes through all four pairs of hands before it reaches yours.
Mara Ketaro
Founder & potter
Throws every carafe and still answers the studio email herself.
Ines Calder
Studio potter
Trims, glazes and is the reason the cups feel the way they do.
Theo Marsh
Kiln & glaze
Mixes the ash glaze and stays up for every firing.
June Okafor
Orders & care
Packs every parcel and runs our lifetime repair service.
Since 2019
A short history of the kiln
2021 · Studio 4
Room to breathe
We moved into a former print shop with north light and room for a gas kiln. Batch sizes settled at forty.
2023 · Lifetime repair
Mend, don’t bin
We began repairing chipped pieces with kintsugi-style gold seams — free, for anything ever bought from Ketaro.
2026 · Batch 07
The autumn kiln
Forty pieces, our first olive-wood trays and a new ash glaze made from last winter’s fires.
Open Thursday to Saturday
Come and see the kiln
Studio 4, 1120 SE Alder St, Portland. Seconds shelf, coffee in our own cups, and a firing most Fridays.